Oil Reserves Are Increasing

educateyourself.org ^ | April 6, 2005 | George Crispin

[StoneGiant]

For all the "peak oil" prognosticators....

[Piquaboy]

It is too bad that we don't have the refinery capacity to process all the oil. Thanks to the socialist enviromentalist.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

there was a thread 3-4 days ago discussing the biggest Saudi field......gist was that they were pumping a million barrels of water into it daily and that the returns are STILL diminishing.

Possibly the dynamic explained in the above piece is limited to a few places? Who knows what to believe any more?

[smag999]

About 10 years ago I came across this theory in an article about some Texas oil wells that were getting refilled from someplace and have been arguing it ever since with people that think I am crazy. I am a believer in this theory.

[jackbenimble]

For all the "peak oil" prognosticators....

So let me see if I understand this correctly. One oil field off the coast of Louisiana is doing something odd and that debunks "peak oil"? Almost every other oil field in America is being stripped via secondary and tertiary recovery methods and is experiencing both declining reserves and declining production. Why are these fields not recharging too? There is still lots of oil left but it is being found in smaller and deeper and more expensive pockets. Eventually we get to the point where it takes a barrel of oil to find, drill for and produce a barrel of oil. At that point, it does not matter how much is still in the ground because if the net energy equation is zero it does not make sense.

I'm no doom and gloomer though. Let's build safe, clean nukes.

[oldenuff2no]

The problem with this theory is that all the components are not known. Say it takes three things for the earth to continue to produce crude. We do not know what all three are or how the work or when one of them will suddenly disappear. We have no way or predicting when this process will stop or how suddenly it can stop. Betting the future of our world on unknown factors is STUPID!!!!!

[-=Wing_0_Walker=-]

Perhaps we need more refineres!

[dirtboy]

Gold’s theory is not yet accepted by all scientists, probably all the more reason to trust it.

Things don't quite work that way. Sometimes scientists are right, sometimes they are wrong. However, that does not therefore indicate that, because most scientists do not adhere to this theory, that is a good indication that the theory is true.

[Royal Wulff]

Funny how all this primordial oil only seems to be found in sedimentary source rock.

[Servant of the 9]

One field with freak conditions is hardly enough to support a theory.

Tens of thousands of other fields, in fact, all but a handful, have gone dry just as originally predicted.

Every attempt to drill for the "primordial soup" has been a failure.

And following geological theory of where Oil & Gas should be if they are of organic origin is still the best way to find it.

So9

[Miykayl]

If the theory is true, that doe not mean that the Earth will produce petroleum as fast as we are pumping it.

Also, production may be higher in some areas than others.

I don't know how many Marxist, enivronmentalist lemmings think that all conservatives want to destroy the Earth at any cost, so long as we get to do what we want, but I am a Republican/Libertarian that thinks that renewable, less-poluting energy sources are important, and I can't wait to see more of it.

I also believe that if the world discovered that oil was unlimited, that it would reduce the speed at which we bring alternative energies to the forefront.

[kellynla]

BTTT

[3dognight]

wouldn't it be funny if they were inadvertently pumping their reserves over to the one in the Gulf of Mexico

[VeniVidiVici]

I'm no doom and gloomer though. Let's build safe, clean nukes.

I'd like to but I don't think I can fit one in my car.

[Lazamataz]

This kinda counters that "We're going to lose our standard of living cuz there's no more oil pretty soon" article.

[Final Authority]

My brother-in-law is the vice President of a major oil field service company who believes, at least in part, to the theories in this article. He as well has no good explanation to the continuation of oil production in fields once thought tapped out. He says, anyplace, nearly anyway, in the world where they want to drill they can find something as long as they put the hole in the right place and deep enough. It may be heavy oil or gas or decent crude but it is not always enough to make it economically feasible. So they tend to stay in areas where they have equipment, crews, knowledge of the area and the mineral rights. Essentially, there is a lot of inertia to seek other fields.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I guess the sky is not falling after all........

[smag999]

For decades I have wondered how on earth the oil fields we have been drawing down ever made it thru millions of years of geologic plate movements, earthquakes, fissures, and pressures, etc., especially since the period of formation under current theory was over more millions of years ago.

Please explain to me how these oil fields survived all this tumultous geologic activity for eons unless SOME of them are being replenished from subterranean forces through cracks and fissures.

[IronJack]

I read about this a couple of months ago but have heard nothing since. The gougers at the oil companies will be jumping off ledges if the myth of declining supply proves a lie. That's the scam they've been using to rob us for half a century now.

[Rodney King]

About 10 years ago I came across this theory in an article about some Texas oil wells that were getting refilled from someplace and have been arguing it ever since with people that think I am crazy. I am a believer in this theory.

There may be something to Gold's theory, but a few examples of wells being larger than previously thought doesn't prove anything. All it really means is that the geologists didn't have the full picture of the reserves to begin with. It totally reasonable to assume that geologists miss a reserve just below the one that they are drilling, and that the below one bubbles up as they drill the upper one.